Genesis owners can now use the new Genesis app for the Google Assistant to remote start, lock, or send destinations to their cars via voice commands on Google Home and eligible Android phones or iPhones.

Microsoft announced in mid-April a free hosted trial for business customers to experience its Exchange Server 2007, one of the key components of its unified communications offerings that are due for release later this year.

Voice-based mobile search technology has already become the new battleground for speech technologies, and now major Web search leaders Yahoo! and Google are poised to add their names to an ever-growing list of participants.

Tim Miller, director of product planning at Siemens, explains, "The shift of focus from browser, ASR/TTS elements and fixed applications to a more innovation-centric market means that the industry will now rapidly move from being a niche segment to a mainstream segment."

According to Bruce Morse, vice president of contact center solutions at IBM, "Delivering a speech server that exploits the Web application server and tooling environment is a logical extension of the IT organization, and enables clients to take advantage of the integration work that's already going on there."

Within the next decade, true interactive speech is expected to be pervasive and in everything. Digital cameras, air conditioners, watches, televisions, PCs, printers, mobile phones, cash registers, kiosks, automobiles, and vending machines will all have voices to announce their status and function. Not only will they accept spoken commands, they will hold conversations with us. Your TIVO will discuss its programming, your car will tell you where to turn, and your mobile phone will remind

Anne Rosenfeld, a Boston, Mass.-based producer of neuroscience conferences for educators, found the 75-minute (one-way) commute between her home and office to be a big waste of time until a dead cell phone helped her become more productive. Needing a new portable phone to keep in touch with her office, suppliers, hotels and family and friends, Rosenfeld bought a new Samsung phone which she later learned was speech-enabled with software from VoiceSignal.

Rich Geruson, CEO of VoiceSignal, explains that "end-users are interested in the simplification that voice provides to the whole mobile experience, including one-step access to any command on the menu."